DISTRICT MAPS OUT FACILITY UPGRADES

First round of Measure Y bond sales is expected to generate $35 million

The Temecula Valley Unified School District has formulated a game plan for more than $27 million in capital improvements to district schools that will be funded by the first round of bond sales from Measure Y.

Measure Y, passed by Temecula voters in November, authorized the school district to issue $165 million in bonds for facility upgrades. Voters agreed to an increase in property taxes to fund the bond issue.

The game plan in this case is a master facilities plan, released by the district last month, that breaks down the $27.3 million in improvements by school and project. This is the first of four scheduled rounds of bond sales, which are expected to take place every several years.

According to the master facilities plan, the total anticipated funds from the first round of bond sales will be $35 million.

District Assistant Superintendent of Business Support Services Lori Ordway-Peck said the balance, approximately $7.7 million, will be applied toward the end of the three-year cycle in preparation for the second round of capital improvements.

She said work began on the current master facilities plan long before the bond measure ever reached the ballot.

“One of the things that you have to do before you go to the voters,” Ordway-Peck said, “is have a plan in place. (So they) know that you really do need the money that you’re asking them for.”

Declining state revenue over the past several years has put district schools behind in their battle to stem the inevitable decline of facilities, she said.

The list of school-by-school improvements includes everything from floors, parking lots and roofs, to energy systems, fire alarms and safety fencing.

“All of those are things that we’ve needed to do for some time,” Ordway-Peck said. “But because of the budget cuts at the state level, we haven’t had extra funds around to do what should have been done as an ongoing thing.”

Every school is slated for $400,000 in technology upgrades.

According to Ordway-Peck, that money will be spent on basics such as alarm systems, lights, electrical capacity, heating and air conditioning, as well as more advanced technology such as wireless networks.

“Technology is going to be the highest priority,” she said. “So we’ll be putting our biggest effort there.”

Temecula Valley High School is slated for $2.8 million in improvements under the master facilities plan, the most of any single school.

Among elementary schools, Nicolas Valley ($1.2 million) and Helen Hunt Jackson ($1.1 million) are earmarked for more than $1 million in upgrades.

“What we want to do is bring all of our facilities up to the most modern state that we can,” Ordway-Peck said, “in terms of technology that will be available to staff and to students.”

Chaparral High School sophomore Brenden San Nicolas said the technology improvements would be welcome. He said the school’s computers were slow. And he offered one other capital improvement suggestion that didn’t make the master facilities plan list.

“Clean the gum off the concrete,” he said. “There’s more gum on the concrete than people here.”